JESSICA BIRK

Project Name:  BENEATH THE CORINDI

Location: Private Residence

Materials: Formed Glass. Metal LINK. Laminate.

Dimensions: 3500mm w x 2550mm h

Description: Jessica Birk was born on the Northern Beaches of Sydney where she still lives and works. Jessica is a proud descendant of the Yaegl people from The Clarence Valley in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. Through her art Jessica asserts herself as a contemporary storyteller of the Yaegl people. Through her art-making she explores the extent to which she can imprint her identity and personal experiences, as well as the notions of belonging and familial lineage, upon the imagery, the colours, the patterns and the forms in her work.

"My image making practice is both as a printmaker and a painter.  Majoring in printmaking in my tertiary studies inspired a love for layered transparencies, intricate patterns and inconsistent and detailed texture. This beginning inspires my work as a painter, building compositions with stained layers of colour, pattern and linear imagery.” Jessica Birk.

These tactile methods of working with acrylics and experimenting with mark making; lend directly into the design concept for this custom artwork commissioned for a private residence in Mosman. The artwork consists of two functional glass panels which at times sit side by side to screen the living areas of the residence, and when open sit in front of one another. The concept was an extension of Birk's original A3 size artwork, Beneath the Corindi. "The idea of the separated and then joined compositions is a little like a two plate etching, which is what the original artwork, Beneath the Corindi actually is.” Jessica Birk

With the aim to maintain a high level of painterly detail, texture and layer opacities, the layers of the original artwork were dissected and split over the two glazed panels. Translucent digitally printed graphics made up of Birk's painted water colours were laminated within the glass, a slumped texture was kiln fired into the glass surface to soften the surface and metal inlays in Rust and Graphite metals adorn the front surface of the glass.